Thanks once again to Kate Cuthbert, Escape Publishing, and Harlequin Australia for supporting my Tarrin’s Bay series, and my editor Belinda Holmes for helping me polish up these books before publication.
To fellow author, Lea Darragh, thanks for reading this manuscript so quickly and giving helpful feedback and encouragement! You are a gem. Thanks also to my amazing friend, Ruth Donald, for reading this manuscript too and helping me with the army related details and characterisation for Zac, not to mention your moral support, encouragement, and friendship.
Thanks to my mum for helping me with flower and plant information for Zac’s garden, because I have no idea about that stuff! And thanks also for reading the draft and giving me a boost in confidence by saying it was good!
A special mention and thanks to Dr Arthur Aron and the team involved in the research paper The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness, for permission to mention within my book your thirty-six questions that involve self-disclosure between participants to build a closer relationship and connection, and to utilise some of these questions in a scene for my characters. For anyone interested in learning more about these questions and their purpose, as well as seeing the full list of questions, please see the links on my website at www.julietmadison.com.
I’d also like to acknowledge the song All of Me by John Legend, which inspired part of my story and is mentioned by the characters in the book, as well as two books that the characters read and that have inspired me: The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, and Ask and It Is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks (The Teachings of Abraham). And thanks to the Australian candle store, Dusk, for inspiring my character April’s candle store and for keeping my home well stocked with delicious-smelling candles!
To my favourite café, Coffee Guru Kiama, thanks Cassie and James and the team for letting me set up office and hog the corner table to write my books!
And to my awesome friend, Julia, thanks for meeting me at the corner table for much-needed breaks and chats and hot beverages. Thanks also to my writing buddies and friends, Alli and Diane, who I couldn’t imagine this writing journey without, and to my readers who keep reading my books and the reviewers who help support them.